MJS International, DOD Contracts, and Patent Licensing

If one reviews the Federal Register on a daily basis, one needs a hobby. Regardless, I do such a thing, and in the Friday, April 14, 2006, Register was an entry in which the Department of Defense, through the US Air Force, stated an "Intent to Grant an Exclusive Patent License" to MJS International of Chesterfield, MO.

What interested me was the patent intended to be licensed. It is titled "Aircraft missile-hit survivability using infrared lamp and sacrificial support structure." The patent abstract states the following:

An aircraft missile vulnerability reduction system based on missile hit acceptance whereby a targeted aircraft's most critical components are protected by a preprogrammed, missile-attracting infrared decoy strategically positioned on a sacrificial portion of the aircraft's structure. The decoy is optimally located based on vulnerability analyses and includes multiple modes of operation that configure to instantaneous survivability needs. The system is capable of providing aircraft survivability against shoulder launched man-portable air defense systems missiles during low-level mission flight scenarios.

Based on my reading of this, and review of the patent details, it seems that the USAF has a device that is installed into aircraft to attract a missle towards a predesignated area of the craft that is deemed non-critical; a sacrificial support structure.

My curiosity lead me to look into the company that the DOD is assigning the patent license. What I found has left me somewhat perplexed. MJS International [company website] [State of Missouri Records] was created in 11/2/2001, dissolved 5/30/2002, and had two contracts worth about $55,000 with the DOD in 2004. In June of 2005, a document was filed showing an email requesting information on reinstating the company.

Apparently, an identical patent license was granted to MJS by the DOD in 2003.